CFL to possibly cancel season affects HBCU players

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According to multiple sources, the Canadian Football League may be forced to cancel the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 epidemic.  In addition to this season, the long-term future of the league is in question.  There are approximately 80 players, who attended an HBCU, currently under contract for training camps in the CFL.  

CFL Commissioner Randy Ambroise testified before the House of Commons committee of finance, this past Thursday.  This testimony came a week after the CFL requested $150 million in assistance from the Canadian government.  The nine team CFL lost approximately $20 million last season.  The CFL relies heavily on ticket sales for revenue.  A fanless CFL will be detrimental to finances.  In Canada, there are approximately 64,000 confirmed cases, with a majority of those being in Quebec and Ontario.

“Unlike large U.S.-based leagues, our biggest source of revenue is not TV, it’s ticket sales,” Ambrosie said while testifying to a House of Commons committee, via the CBC. “Governments coping with COVID-19, for reasons of public health that we totally support, have made it impossible for us to do what we do.  “Our best-case scenario for this year is a drastically truncated season. And our most likely scenario is no season at all.”  He later stated, “The fact is that in the face of essentially a zero-revenue model, all of our teams, including our community teams, are going to suffer significant losses that are going to be hard to recover from,” Ambrosie said. “The real issue is this crisis is essentially going to quadruple or more the financial losses that our teams will take in a season that could potentially be lost altogether.”

In a press conference the prior week, Ambrose stated, “We’re like so many other businesses across Canada.  We’re facing financial pressures unlike anything we’ve seen before. Our best-case scenario is we’re almost certain to have to cancel games. But at worst if this crisis persists and large gatherings are prevented, we could lose the whole season and the types of losses we could incur would be devastating.”

The regular season was scheduled to begin in early July, with training camps opening up next month.  All have been postponed.  With only 30 HBCU players being drafted by the NFL in the previous decade, many have looked to other leagues to play professional football in North America.  With the AAF and XFL folding over the past 12 months, the CFL and Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional (LFA) of Mexico are the top remaining professional leagues.  During the off-season, CFL teams are able to expand their rosters to 85 players.  Season rosters are limited to 46 players, of which 20 can be non-Canadian players exclusively.  An additional 3 players can be classified as quarterbacks without restriction to their country of origin.  There are 10 practice squad slots available where a maximum of 8 American can be listed.

The opportunities for HBCU players to earn a living playing professional football may become even more limited because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Clifford Jackson, CEO and sports agent for Right Touch Sports, stated that “although in the short term, opportunities may be limited, the playing field will be level.   The market will be flooded with players due to free agency as a result of a cancelled season.  Because of supply and demand, salaries may decrease but there will still be opportunities.  If players look and do their research, there are a few leagues who still plan to continue operations.”  Leagues that Jackson suggested include the Rival Professional Football League in America, the X-League in Japan, and German Football League as options for HBCU players.